Stop the Violence: Addressing Violence Against Women and Girls With Disabilities in Australia: Background paper

Women With Disabilities Australia (WWDA) is the peak non-government organisation (NGO) for women with all types of disabilities in Australia. WWDA is run by women with disabilities, for women with disabilities, and represents more than 2 million disabled women in Australia. WWDA’s work is grounded in a rights-based framework which links gender and disability issues to a full range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Promoting the rights of women and girls with disabilities to freedom from violence, exploitation and abuse and to freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment are key policy priorities of WWDA. The Stop the Violence Project (STVP) emerges from WWDA’s long standing commitment to addressing one of the most pressing issues for its membership: violence against women and girls with disabilities in Australia. Overseen by WWDA and conducted by a research team at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) in conjunction with a project team from People with Disabilities Australia (PWDA), the project is national in scope and is intended to lay the groundwork for improved service provision by building the evidence-base for future reforms so that the service system is more responsive to the needs of women and girls with disabilities. The immediate objective of the project is to investigate and promote ways to support better practice and evidence-based service system improvements to prevent violence and, improve access to, and responses of, governments and services for women and girls with disabilities experiencing, or at risk of violence. This Background Paper presents outcomes of an evidence-building project, providing in-depth material to support the Stop the Violence: Addressing Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities in Australia. A further project document Stop the Violence: Addressing Violence Against Women and Girls with Disabilities in Australia: Discussion Paper which summaries the evidence emerging and identifies principles and strategies to enhance good policy and practice has been prepared to inform deliberations at the National Symposium on Violence against Women and Girls with Disabilities conducted in Sydney in October 2013